It was a busy one this week, but maybe that’s because the news began breaking early and never let up! Here’s a recap of this week’s big stories:

- In what was possibly the biggest story of the week (and maybe the year?), we saw the end of the “Watchmen” legal battle. Sure, we were glad to see it end, but now what are we supposed to write about?

- Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, we brought you up to speed with the team-up between Spider-Man and U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama, fist-bumps and all!

- There was a lot of action with Marvel’s much-anticipated slate of upcoming movies, with Eva Longoria addressing “Avengers” casting rumors, then Mickey Rourke “bringing it all” to a potential “Iron Man 2″ role.

- “The Dark Knight” had another busy week in the headlines, with Heath Ledger winning a Golden Globe, then Aaron Eckhart hinting at the return of Two-Face.

- Marvel jumped back into the headlines later in the week when Emily Blunt became a likely addition to the “Iron Man 2″ cast and Sam Rockwell confirmed his “Iron Man 2″ role during an exclusive MTV interview.

But that wasn’t all we had for you this week…

- Comics-savvy producer Michael Uslan teased that his Captain Marvel/Shazam movie is still alive and kicking.

- Director Sam Mendes told us why he still has plans for a “Preacher” movie.

- And finally, we gave you a must-read list of Legion of Super-Heroes and Superman stories in advance of the teen superteam’s debut on “Smallville.”

Was that everything? If not, it was a pretty decent approximation of a crazy week here at Splash Page HQ! See you next time!

Sure, everyone already knows about the record-breaking success of “The Dark Knight,” and we’re all waiting to see if the film’s early award run will translate into a few “Dark Knight” Oscars. Heck, we’re even starting to hear information begin trickling out about a “Dark Knight” sequel. But what does Frank Miller, the man who wrote — in many comics fans’ minds — the definitive “Dark Knight” story, think about the film?

“Look, they got the title right,” Miller told MTV when asked about the influence of his “Dark Knight Returns” story on the very dark vibe of “The Dark Knight.”

“Actually, I think they should have called it ‘The Joker,’” he laughed. Read more…

FROM MULTIPLAYER: While giant video game publisher Electronic Arts still won’t admit that a “Dark Knight” game was under development at the company in 2008, the existence of such a project had been widely rumored and winked at throughout the last calendar year. Still, no game based on the movie was released for any of the major console and handheld gaming systems.

But a report in the Australian version of gaming blog Kotaku goes into great detail about a now-canceled “Dark Knight” game that was in development all year at the Brisbane offices of EA-owned development studio Pandemic.

For more on “The Dark Knight” video game’s rumored collapse, head over to Multiplayer.MTV.com.

When you’re dealing with a character like Wonder Woman — who has a long, storied history within the DCU — it’s often difficult to bring anything new to the table, even when you’re an Emmy Award-winning animator like Bruce Timm. However, rather than make any drastic changes to the character in the upcoming addition to DC’s critically acclaimed series of direct-to-DVD animated features, “Wonder Woman,” Timm — who serves as the film’s producer — simply decided to give the Amazon Warrior Princess a new pair of boots.

“We [looked] at a lot of the comics for inspiration,” said Timm. “One of the things that we specifically liked about [comic book artist] Adam Hughes’ most recent take on Wonder Woman was that he gave her kind of baggy boots – instead of those super-tight, go-go boot-type things. It’s a minor change, but it had an effect on her design.”

Naturally, fancy footwear isn’t the only thing fans can look forward to from the movie. After the jump Timm discusses how “Wonder Woman” will stand out from the rest of the series of DC animated features, and drops some hints about the overall story. Read more…

FROM MOVIES BLOG: Last month, MTV caught up with Keanu Reeves about his dream project — a live-action remake of the anime classic, “Cowboy Bebop.” Reeves confirmed that he and Fox were “trying to do that” and that a writer was attached. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is confirming that Reeves is set to play Spike Spiegel, and that Peter Craig is writing the script. No director has been named.

The sound you might hear now is the howl of a thousand “Cowboy Bebop” fans, who have long been against Reeves’ casting and of an American remake in general. I’m not even sure that the news that the original Bebop writing and production team of Kenji Uchida, Shinichiro Watanabe, Keiko Nobumoto, and Masahiko Minami are coming onboard as producers and production consultants will help soften the blow.

Read more about Keanu Reeves’ plans for “Cowboy Bebop” at MoviesBlog.MTV.com.

It’s over at last! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros and Fox have settled their legal dispute over who owns “Watchmen.” To make a long story short — yes, you’ll be seeing the film on March 6th, as planned.

The fine points of the settlement were not released to the curious masses, but the deal reportedly includes a sizable payoff to Fox, and a percentage of the box office gross. Fox will not be a co-distributor of the film, nor will it co-own the “Watchmen” property, or be able to alter the film in any way. The studio will simply share in all the sweet money the film and its merchandising makes. Read more…

President-Elect Barack Obama loves comics, and as we discovered back in November, comics (and the character’s in ‘em) love Barack Obama. The dark horse candidate turned 44th President of the United States appeared in “Amazing Spider-Man” #583 Wednesday, and 24 hours later, Marvel is already announcing a third print run.

“It’s the story you’ve seen everywhere from CNN to the New York Times to Fox News—Spider-Man and United States President-Elect Barack Obama meet for the first time—and to meet the unprecedented demand, Marvel is going back to press with Amazing Spider-Man #583 Third Printing Obama Variant,” read an official press release from Marvel issued today. Read more…

In the comics world, when Clark Kent was still a teenager living in Smallville, he was visited by a team of teenagers from the 30th century called the Legion of Super-Heroes, whose members were from many different worlds. The LSH told Clark that, although he felt alone now, he would grow up to be a hero whose legend would last millennia and who would be an example to everyone that different races and cultures could work together.

Tonight, the LSH will finally make their live-action debut on the CW’s long-running Superboy-themed television series “Smallville,” in an episode written by veteran comics scribe Geoff Johns and titled “Legion.”

So, for you folks looking for a little background on DC’s young heroes from the future, MTV has compiled a list of some of Clark’s more exciting team-ups with these teen superheroes from the 30th century. Read more…

If you’ve been getting your daily recommended dosage of Splash Page, then you’re well aware that we’ve been all over next month’s superpowered thriller “Push” like a fanboy at a quarter bin. So naturally, when we saw that the fine folks at Summit Entertainment had dropped an all-new extended clip from the upcoming movie, as well as two new TV spots, we just had to share the goodness with you all.

Check out the extended clip below — which might actually be the first telekinetic gunfight we’ve ever seen in a film:

After the jump, we’re got the two brand-spankin’-new TV spots for your afternoon dose of geekery. Read more…

Reporting by Tami Katzoff

Despite the fact that all of comicdom will soon know him as Victor Creed (a.k.a. Wolverine’s longtime sparing partner, Sabretooth) in the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” to many of his fans out there, Liev Schreiber is better known as a classical, Tony Award-winning actor, having appeared in numerous Shakespeare productions as well as more dramatic roles. So, taking on the role of a blood-thirsty mutant brawler came as a bit of a surprise to some of his friends and family.

“I think people underestimate the level of teenage boy in me,” Schreiber recently told MTV. “When everyone said they were shocked that I wanted to be a mutant in the new ‘X-Men’ movie, I was not surprised at all, and would do it over and over again. The only hard part is all the exercise.” Read more…